Note: Hi, friends! Just a a quick reminder – some of the links on this site are affiliate links, and so I may earn a little cash on qualifying orders. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, and is a nice way to help support this site! I also want to point out that I don’t promote products I haven’t actually tried or products that I don’t trust. 🙂
Do you ever have a craving for things like chicken nuggets? I mean, all the time? I do, because I’m a person and I like things that taste good, but there are some problems with traditional vegan chicken nugget: namely, that they’re pretty carb heavy and usually full of gluten and random additives. There’s also the small issue of not really being able to find low carb vegan chicken nuggets in any store near me, but that’s almost secondary…
Cauliflower is basically used for everything in low carb cooking, and why not? It’s healthy, and tends to take on the flavor of whatever seasoning you add to a dish. It’s kind of like tofu, but somehow more versatile. For the breading, I went with lupin flour because it’s delicious, and protein-rich. The bean flour adds just enough nuttiness to these vegan low carb cauliflower nuggets to really make them taste…well, nuggety. I realize that lupin flour is one of those things that is a little harder to get your hands on, but it’s totally wroth the effort to track some down. It’s super low in carbs and high in protein, including lysine (an essential amino acid that’s a little trickier for low carb vegans to get).
Of course, if you can’t find lupin flour near you (and don’t want to order it online), you could use either soy flour or chickpea flour instead. Both are still gluten free and will make a lovely breading, they’re just a little lower in protein and higher in carbs (chickpea moreso than soy). The flavor of these can also be changed to suit your tastes (I like subbing the hot sauce with mustard on occasion). If you make these, I’d love to hear about any variation you went with in the comments!!
Notes on Making Vegan Low Carb Cauliflower Nuggets:
- You can use whatever seasoning you want for this recipe, I just happened to choose buffalo wing sauce because I love it. This is also pretty tasty with mustard in place of the hot sauce and 1 tbsp fresh chopped dill mixed in as well.
- If you can’t get your hands on lupin flour, you could use either soy flour or chickpea flour. Just be aware that the carb count will increase!
- This recipe can easily be doubled to make a large batch of cauliflower “wings.”
- While I strive to provide accurate nutritional information, different brands and varieties of ingredients can have varying nutritional information, so your calculations may be slightly off from mine!
Vegan Low Carb Cauliflower Nuggets
Ingredients
- 2 cups 200g cauliflower florets (try to make them uniform in size)
- 1/4 cup 28g lupin flour
- 2 tbsp hot sauce my go-to is Frank's, be sure to check that the variety you pick is vegan!
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3 tbsp water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (377°C).
- Spread florets out in a single layer in a pan, and bake for about 30 minutes, until the florets are tender.
- In the last few minutes of baking - mix together lupin flour, sauce, oil and water until a batter forms (it should be about the consistency of pancake batter).
- Carefully dip each floret into the batter (it's easiest with a fork), and lay back on to the baking dish.
- Bake for an additional half 25-30 minutes, until the florets are crispy.
- Eat!
Great site & love your recipes
Thanks, Maxine!!
I made these with coconut flour instead of chickpea to make it lower carb and it worked! They tasted great and had an awesome kick! Any tips for making them slightly crispier for next time?
I’m thinking if you have an air fryer or convection oven, you could use that instead to make these crispier. When I make them, I plan on using my baking tray/basket in my convection oven to see if these can be crispy.
Another goodie!
I like my salad or my wraps to have something substantial in them and this is just the ideal solution, rally versatile, can herb it, spice it, curry it, just do a nooch one (not sure if nooch is keto)
Mooch is TOTALLY keto! 😀
Hi Liz,
I’m wondering about your source of buffalo wing sauce. Does it matter or do they not have carbs in them?
Thanks!
Corina I use Franks Red Hot and it has zero carbs! Plus it tastes great!